10 houses in a month, and the power team it takes

My real estate investor business had a great month. You can tell “spring has sprung” in Dallas/Fort Worth. In the month of March, we put 10 houses under contract to purchase. Those of you that follow this blog regularly know, I close on every contract. This month was a trying month. My team is growing, and with that comes pains. I thought I would share a couple of aspects of my business, and what I have learned in the last 11 years of hiring, training, and unfortunately firing.

When Do You Hire?

When you can no longer handle the responsibilities in your business. Do not subscribe to the theory, “If you build it, they will come”. Too many entrepreneurs “staff up”, and cripple their business from the start.

Who do you hire?

The absolute first position to hire in your real estate investor business (when you get to a point where you can’t handle it all by yourself) is a difficult decision. I use to hire the position that would free up the most time first. That always seemed to be a buyer. It takes a lot of time to evaluate properties, and make offers. The follow-up alone in my company can take 3 – 4 hours a day. The problem with hiring a buyer, at least in my company, is that is what I am best at. In the past, I always seemed to still have to be involved in the decisions, follow-up, and ultimately I would step back into the role. What I have learned is, instead of hiring to free up my time, I now hire to replace the tasks I don’t like. This month I hired an office manager. Someone that is responsible for the mail, deposits, emails, phone messages, follow-up letters, etc. These are all tasks that I always seemed to put off, because I was busy in the field. They are also the tasks I did not enjoy the most.

How do you understand what you are good at?

There are many skill assessment systems available on the marketplace. I highly recommend Ken Channell, the Co-President of HomeVestors, and his system – Talent DNA. If you would like to take the test, comment below, and I will send you the ordering information.

What position do you hire next?

Great question. I will break the rest of this series into a nine part post series during the month of April. Subscribe to my blog to your right, and I’ll let you know when they are posted.

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Comments

Tim, great question to ponder about hiring. I always felt the most important person to hire first was the one that could take the $10-12/hour tasks off my hands so I hired a personal assistant/office manager first. Now have a marketing assistant to help coordinate marketing tasks and follow-up. Next will be a sales manager/coordinator because that is my least favorite part of the business so as a result, I don’t do it well.